Friday, October 19, 2012

3rd Party Transformers - Perfect Effect PE-DX01 RC - Motobot

Whew... now that all that mainstream stuff is out of the way, it's time to take a look at some of the 3rd Party product that has come out recently that I've finally been able to get a hold of. And let me tell you, there is some REALLY nice stuff out there that is putting Hasbro and Takara to shame.

Over the past few years, we've received plenty of Arcees. With the advent of the 2nd Transformers movie (Revenge of the Fallen), TF: Animated, TF: Prime, and TF: Energon, toys of the female Autobot were finally coming out. But, we never really received a true G1 Arcee, the closest was Animated, but to me, still a "not really".

A few 3rd Party vendors have tried their hand at making an Arcee, but still nothing quite so good. My personal favorite is a blend of the G1 look and the recently use motorcycle Alt-mode. Let's take a look at Perfect Effect's NOT Arcee, the PE-DX01 RC Motobot after the jump.

Recently, IDW has taken Arcee and made her well... insane. After basically being forcibly turned female and then tortured by Jhiaxus, Arcee became a force to be reckoned with. Arcee was finally beaten and taken prisoner by Ultra Magnus and imprisoned on Garrus-9. With Jhiaxus freeing Monstructor and a few other Cons, Magnus made a deal with Arcee, freedom and a chance to deal with Jhiaxus in exchange for dealing with the Cons. After the Chaos event, Arcee has become Prowl's doer of dirty deeds. She has assassinated Ratbat...

... and beaten down Cons unleashing a psychopathic streak the width of Unicron. And I like her. I love this incarnation of Arcee. A female Bot that kicks a ton of ass... not the whiny princess Bot of yesteryear. And I feel that Perfect Effect's PE-DX01 RC Motobot fits what I wanted in this version Arcee perfectly.

RC was available for order in 2 colors; and is still available from our friends over at BBTS. There is the PINK for the G1 enthusiasts and BLUE as an homage to TF: Prime Arcee. I've been needing a G1 Arcee for my shelf for quite some time, so I went with the pink one.

RC comes packed in a box reminiscent of the G1 packaging. The box is red, which denoted Autobots, and has a white grid pattern on it. The front of the box has a window for RC to show through along with some artwork of RC's Alt-mode.

The sides of the box contain all sorts of text. In Japanese. Which I can't read.

The back of the box gives us a few shots of RC in numerous poses using her full array of accessories; which a list of is also given.

RC's box did not come sealed; making it easy enough to open the flap and slide the tray out. The insert in the box is your usual plastic tray minus ties to hold RC in place; instead, the tray has molded spots to keep RC and her pieces 'snapped' into place. The tray has a lid to keep all those pieces in place as well and there is a small cardboard insert withing the plastic tray to ensure that the entire tray stays square.

Underneath the tray is a package containing RC's instructions and a comic book. The comic has RC off on a mission to save 'Leader' who is clearly Rodimus. The art style is very anime and fits well with the Transformers look.

The comic also gives a glance at RC's blue version as well as a shot of the Black Arachnia version that's coming.

The instructions are pictographic in nature with some English thrown in. They break down how the figure transforms by showing the figure in grey and the parts that are to be moved in red, with notches and peg fittings in yellow.

Now for the Fem-Bot herself...

RC is armed. TO. THE. TEETH. One of my favorite things in a toy is it's ability to hold ALL of it's gear and accessories. Hasbro has been getting better at this by integrating weapons and other items either into the transformation, or having a place for them in either mode. RC does this beautifully.

All geared up! She holds everything, well... all but the sniper rifle barrel.

RC's centerpiece is her sniper rifle. RC is kind of a parts-former. As you change her modes, parts move from one place to another by being removed and placed elsewhere. Her sniper rifle is a prime example of this. Composed of parts from the rear and bottom of her Alt-mode. It's a nice looking piece of gear and RC has the articulation to use it. Though, a prone pose wasn't happening; her head doesn't rotate up enough.

As seen when Arcee assassinated Ratbat, she used an Energon sword. RC is equipped with 2 Energon swords. The seat from the Alt-mode gets moved and snapped into place on her back. There are to slots to drop the swords into place and each hilt has a raised section to provide resistance so they 'snap' into place and stay seated.

Arcee was never not armed in the original books and toons, she always had a pistol. RC has no less; she has two. Both of which snap onto the same seat section that holds her swords. The fit is a little tight and required a little extra effort to remove them one placed.

I am very happy with this RC. She has tons of articulation built in; numerous hinges and swivels to allow for a myriad of poses. Her wrists both rotate and have a hinge allowing for 'downward' movement. Her lower legs and feet have hinges as well allowing her foot to support a wide variety of stances. Her bubblegum pink color scheme is perfect for her character but with splashes of white, grey, and black to break it up.

Transforming RC is kind of intuitive. She's a bike-bot. Like most bike-bots her legs fold to the sides, torso swivels, arms go back, and head folds down. The one thing I did notice is that she has little mechanisms built in that lock certain pieces in place. Parts have to be moved just right to 'unlock' them. Most notably, her knees/wheel guards. Her legs have to be bent JUST SO to get the knee armor to rotate around to become the wheel guard. It was annoying at first, but once you get it figured out, it's pretty easy.

Starting with a bare RC with all of her parts laid out; her head and neck flip up and her head rotates. Her legs swivel to the side and fold at the knees; connecting into her body. Once we have the basic Alt-mode, we start attaching her parts.

The small piece from her back pops off and the seat folds out. Leave the pistols attached; they fit into her hands making the seat of the bike.

Her forearm guards; also the sniper rifle stock, fit right back onto the forearms forming the rear of the bike.

The pieces that form her jetpack (wings?) open up. The Energon swords fold at the hilt and snap into place inside what will be the Alt-modes fairings. At the bottom, there is a spot to snap the sniper barrel into place.

On either side of the fairings, the post hole that the wings use to snap onto RC's back should be facing out. The scope and bipod from the sniper rifle fit into the spots giving RC's Alt-mode some firepower.

RC is VERY reminiscent of a Cyclone... possibly one of my favorite sci-fi versions of a motorcycle ever. Remember those... Robotech: New Generation with Scott Bernard, Rand, Lancer, Rook Bartley? I LOVED those.

Though instead of just being armor, RC is a full-blown Bot.

Her Alt-mode is fairly solid for being a parts-former. The only issue I seem to have is the fairings wanting to pop apart along the bottom and the sniper rifle barrel coming off. But that's not too much of an issue since she will be displayed in Bot-mode.

I'm really glad I picked the figure up. I feel that while she has a few shortcomings (What figure doesn't?), she fulfills what I wanted in and Arcee homage VERY well. She is massively articulated, comes with an array of gear that she can hold ALL of, and looks great in either mode. If you need an Arcee, I would tell you to spend the money on her, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Mine is already up on the shelf with another character that she goes well with...

I think that, eventually, now that I have an Arcee, I want to recreate a shot of the cover to the '86 movie. I could do it...

Until that time... Arcee will live on the shelf, ready to snipe anything that she pleases.